A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off and boosted multiple National Reconnaissance Office satellites into space Sunday to keep tabs on the behavior of potential enemy spacecraft in the high orbit favored by spy satellites, communications stations and other high-priority U.S. assets. The NROL-107 payload, made up of an unknown number of satellites built to operate in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator, is known as “Silent Barker.” “The idea of the mission is to put a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, and then to be looking at that orbital regime and get a sense of what’s happening day to day,” said NRO Director Chris Scolese. Along with tracking routine satellite movements, “we also want to know if there is something going on that is unexpected, or shouldn’t be going on that could potentially represent a threat to a high-value asset, either ours or one of our allies,” Scolese said. “So that’s the purpose of it. It’s really to be a watchdog in that orbital regime, the geosynchronous orbit.” The Atlas 5, powered by a Russian-built RD-180 first stage engine and five GEM-63 strap-on solid-fuel boosters, roared to life and climbed away from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:47 a.m. ET. The launching, delayed from Aug. 29 by Hurricane Idalia and then by a technical issue, marked the 18th and final Atlas 5 NRO flight as ULA continues its on-going transition to the company’s new Vulcan rocket.
Full story : NRO and Space Force launch “watchdog” satellites to monitor potential adversaries in space.
